The hate speech of a private landlord

Just as one national newspaper reports that a woman left a rented house in a mess, so another newspaper reports that she did not.

If you do not have time to read these two press reports, the basic story is that a single mother on benefits called Christine Lucas used to live with her two (or three - it isn't clear) children in a house owned by private landlord Sean Feeney.

She vacated the property when she was offered a council house, where she now lives with her children and her mother.  Mr Feeney alleges that she left the house she rented from him in a terrible state, while Miss Lucas alleges that she left the house spotless.  Any damage was caused by vandals after she left.

I do not know whether or not Miss Lucas is telling the truth, but I wonder if Mr Feeney does either.  Can he prove that people other than Miss Lucas did not trash the property?

Mr Feeney has been quoted as saying that they haven’t worked hard for anything in the house so they have no respect for it.  How is this not hate speech?

If Mr Feeney were to talk about black people the way he talks about benefit claimants, then he would probably be arrested.

Does he honestly think it is polite to imply that people who have to depend upon welfare payments are by nature morally deficient?

Also, Miss Lucas argues that Mr Feeney did not maintain the property.  Is that true?

It appears that Miss Lucas fell behind with the rent, and that she borrowed money to pay the arrears, but it was stolen.  Maybe the lender could have given her the money in the form of a cheque made payable to her landlord.  Surely that would have been safer.

Mr Feeney may well have a point when he complains about the government paying housing benefit to tenants rather than landlords, but that state of affairs is the fault of the government, not the tenants.  In fact it is the fault of the millions of people in this country who insist on voting in elections for worthless politicians.

Related previous posts include:
What exactly is hate speech?
This hate speech shames Britain
Stop being nasty to those less fortunate
A large family versus private landlords